Method and apparatus used in wlan networks

ABSTRACT

The application provides a method, including: generating a Physical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising both information for one or more first-generation stations (R1 STAs) and information for one or more second-generation stations (R2 STAs); and transmitting the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2 STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit (RU) allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RU allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to wirelesscommunications in a wireless local area network (WLAN), and inparticular, to a method and apparatus used in a WLAN.

BACKGROUND

An Extremely High Throughput (EHT) network, also known as 802.11benetwork, achieves high throughput through a series of system featuresand various mechanisms. In Down Link (DL) Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access (OFDMA), the EHT network may reuse 802.11ax ResourceUnit (RU) allocation table for resource allocation. The 802.11ax RUallocation table is a 9-bit table which has 512 RU allocation entries intotal, wherein about 270 RU allocation entries are used for indicatingMRUs defined for first-generation stations (R1 STAs) in the 802.11benetwork and the remaining RU allocation entries are reserved.

With development of the EHT network, when second-generation STAs (R2STAs) are developed and deployed within the EHT network, as the 802.11axRU allocation table does not include any RU allocation entry forindicating any RU defined for the R2 STAs, the R1 STAs cannot, based onthe 802.11ax RU allocation table, correctly decode user fields for theR1 STAs in an EHT Physical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (EHT PPDU),which includes both information for the R1 STAs and information for theR2 STAs.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the disclosure provides a method, comprising: generating aPhysical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising bothinformation for one or more first-generation stations (R1 STAs) andinformation for one or more second-generation stations (R2 STAs); andtransmitting the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit(RU) allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.

An aspect of the disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising processorcircuitry configured to: generate a Physical Layer (PHY) Protocol DataUnit (PPDU) comprising both information for one or more first-generationstations (R1 STAs) and information for one or more second-generationstations (R2 STAs); and transmit the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs andthe one or more R2 STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDUcomprises Resource Unit (RU) allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R1 STAs and RU allocation entries corresponding to the one ormore R2 STAs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the disclosure will be illustrated, by way of example andnot limitation, in conjunction with the figures of the accompanyingdrawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements andwherein:

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environmentaccording to some example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a method 200 according to some exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a table for explanation of solution 2 to indicate RUs definedfor R2 STAs.

FIG. 4 is another table for explanation of solution 2 to indicate RUsdefined for R2 STAs.

FIG. 5 is a structure diagram showing EHT PPDU Format.

FIG. 6 is a table showing a description of EHT PPDU fields.

FIG. 7 is a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station700, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example of a machine or system 800 uponwhich any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussedherein may be performed.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 900A, 900B inaccordance with some embodiments that may be implemented in any one ofAPs 104 and/or the user devices 102 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 illustrates WLAN FEM circuitry 904 a in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates radio IC circuitry 906 a in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates a functional block diagram of baseband processingcircuitry 908 a in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described usingterms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey thesubstance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that many alternateembodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects.For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, andconfigurations are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may bepracticed without the specific details. In other instances, well knownfeatures may have been omitted or simplified in order to avoid obscuringthe illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discreteoperations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understandingthe illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description shouldnot be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in theorder of presentation.

The phrases “in an embodiment” “in one embodiment” and “in someembodiments” are used repeatedly herein. The phrase generally does notrefer to the same embodiment; however, it may. The terms “comprising,”“having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictatesotherwise. The phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean “(A), (B), or (A and B).”

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environmentaccording to some example embodiments of the disclosure. As shown inFIG. 1, a wireless network 100 may include one or more user devices 102and one or more access points (APs) 104, which may communicate inaccordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards. The user devices102 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary (e.g., not havingfixed locations) or may be stationary devices.

In some embodiments, the user devices 102 and APs 104 may include one ormore function modules similar to those in the functional diagram of FIG.7 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 8.

The one or more user devices 102 and/or APs 104 may be operable by oneor more users 110. It should be noted that any addressable unit may be astation (STA). A STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, eachof which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unitmight simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of-service (QoS) STA,a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more user devices 102 andthe one or more APs 104 may be STAs. The one or more user devices 102and/or APs 104 may operate as a personal basic service set (PBSS)control point/access point (PCP/AP). The user devices 102 (e.g., 1024,1026, or 1028) and/or APs 104 may include any suitable processor-drivendevice including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile,e.g., a static device. For example, the user devices 102 and/or APs 104may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point(AP), a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), awearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), adesktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook™computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, ahandheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT)device, a sensor device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, ahandheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybriddevice (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalities with PDA devicefunctionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehiculardevice, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portabledevice, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a personal communicationsservice (PCS) device, a PDA device which incorporates a wirelesscommunication device, a mobile or portable global positioning system(GPS) device, a digital video broadcasting (DVB) device, a relativelysmall computing device, a non-desktop computer, a “carry small livelarge” (CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC(UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an “origami” device or computingdevice, a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), acontext-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, aset-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digitalvideo disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVDrecorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), abroadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, anaudio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat paneldisplay, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), adigital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier,a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera(DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, orthe like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climatecontrol, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may alsobe included in this list.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (IoT) device” is used torefer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has anaddressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, aBluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.)and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wiredor wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communicationinterface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an activecommunication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, atransmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particularset of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether theIoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available fortask execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, anenvironmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emittingfunction, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded inand/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU),microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to anIoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example,IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators,toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools,clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners,thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers,electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices areequipped with an addressable communications interface for communicatingwith the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised ofa combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop ordesktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do nottypically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

The user devices 102 and/or APs 104 may also include mesh stations in,for example, a mesh network, in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11standards and/or 3GPP standards.

Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024, 1026, 1028) andAPs 104 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or morecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. The userdevices 102 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with eachother with or without APs 104. Any of the communications networks 130and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of a combination ofdifferent types of suitable communications networks such as, forexample, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks (e.g.,the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellular networks,or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further, any ofthe communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitablecommunication range associated therewith and may include, for example,global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs),wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal areanetworks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic maybe carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pairwire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwaveterrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, whitespace communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums,satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024, 1026, 1028) andAPs 104 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or morecommunications antennas may be any suitable type of antennascorresponding to the communications protocols used by the user devices102 (e.g., user devices 1024, 1026 and 1028) and APs 104. Somenon-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fiantennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas,non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patchantennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas,omnidirectional antennas, quasi-omnidirectional antennas, or the like.The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupledto a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such ascommunications signals to and/or from the user devices 102 and/or APs104.

Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024, 1026, 1028) andAPs 104 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/ordirectional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in awireless network. Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024,1026, 1028) and APs 104 may be configured to perform such directionaltransmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays(e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antennaarrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particularrespective direction or range of directions. Any of the user devices 102(e.g., user devices 1024, 1026, 1028) and APs 104 may be configured toperform any given directional transmission towards one or more definedtransmit sectors. Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024,1026, 1028) and APs 104 may be configured to perform any givendirectional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be accomplished using radiofrequency (RF) beamforming and/or digital beamforming. In someembodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, the user devices102 and/or APs 104 may be configured to use all or a subset of its oneor more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

Any of the user devices 102 (e.g., user devices 1024, 1026, 1028) andAPs 104 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver fortransmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in thebandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocolsutilized by any of the user devices 102 and APs 104 to communicate witheach other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software tomodulate and/or demodulate communications signals according topre-established transmission protocols. The radio components may furtherhave hardware and/or software instructions to communicate via one ormore Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11standards. It should be understood that this list of communicationchannels in accordance with certain 802.11 standards is only a partiallist and that other 802.11 standards may be used (e.g., Next GenerationWi-Fi, or other standards). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols maybe used for communications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicatedshort-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE802.11af, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), orother packetized radio communications. The radio component may includeany known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via thecommunications protocols. The radio component may further include a lownoise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, ananalog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digitalbaseband.

In some embodiments, it is proposed to provide 802.11be RU allocationtable for resource allocation. The 802.11be RU allocation table mayinclude both RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R1STAs and RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R2 STAs.The RU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAsmay be different from the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUsdefined for the R1 STAs. That is to say, the RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs may be a part of the RUallocation entries in the 802.11be RU allocation table, and the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs may bea different part of the RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table.

In some embodiments, similar as 802.11ax RU allocation table, the802.11be RU allocation table is a 9-bit table which includes 512 RUallocation entries in total, wherein there are about 270 RU allocationentries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs and a part of orall of the remaining RU allocation entries may be used for indicatingthe RUs defined for the R2 STAs. The RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs may be the same as those inthe 802.11ax RU allocation table that is previously reused by the802.11be network.

In some embodiments, with reference to FIG. 1, the user devices 102 mayinclude one or more R1 STAs and one or more R2 STAs, both of which maycommunicate with any of APs 104 according to 802.11 standards including802.11be. FIG. 2 is flowchart showing a method 200 according to someexample embodiments of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, the method200 includes: S202, generating a PPDU comprising both information forthe one or more R1 STAs and information for the one or more R2 STAs,wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises RU allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RU allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R2 STAs; S204, transmitting the PPDU tothe one or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2 STAs. It should beappreciated that the method 200 may be implemented by any of APs 104 totransmit information to the R1 STAs and the R2 STAs, simultaneously.

In some embodiments, the RU allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R1 STAs are selected from the RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs, and the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are selected from theRU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for R2 STAs.

In some embodiments, the RU allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R1 STAs and the RU allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R2 STAs may be comprised in RU allocation subfields of thepreamble portion.

In some embodiment, based on the 802.11be RU allocation table, uponreceiving the PPDU including both the information for the one or more R1STAs and information for the one or more R2 STAs, any of the one or moreR1 STAs can correctly understand the number of user fields and thestructure of the user fields in the PDU and thus correctly decode theuser fields for the R1 STA.

In some embodiments, there are two solutions to indicate the RUs definedfor the R2 STAs.

Solution 1

In some embodiments, about 220 RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table are not used for indicating the RUs defined for the R1STAs, and may be used for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs.

In some embodiments, eight RU allocation entries may be allocated forindicating 1 to 8 users allocated to each RU defined for the R2 STAs,and the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for R2 STAsin the 802.11be RU allocation table may be used to indicate at least 27RUs defined for the R2 STAs, wherein floor (220/8)=27. For example, RUallocation entries 300˜307 may be allocated for indicating RU_y, RUallocation entries 308˜315 may allocated for indicating RU_z, and so on.

In some embodiments, an index value of a RU allocation entry forindicating 1 to 8 users allocated to a RU defined for the R2 STAs may beused to indicate the number of user fields, which are contributed touser specific fields in the same content channel as RU allocationsubfields including the RU allocation entry in the preamble portion. Forexample, the number of user fields contributed to the user specificfields is derived based on the following expression:

N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1

wherein N_user denotes the number of user fields contributed to the userspecific fields and n_index denotes the index value of the RU allocationentry. For example, the index value 300˜307 of RU allocation entry300˜307 may be used to indicate 1˜8 user fields, which are contributedto the user specific fields in the same content channel as the RUallocation subfields including the RU allocation entry 300˜307; theindex value 308˜315 of RU allocation entry 308˜315 may be used toindicate 1˜8 user fields, which are contributed to the user specificfields in the same content channel as the RU allocation subfieldsincluding the RU allocation entry 308˜315.

In some embodiment, a RU allocation entry for indicating a RU assignedto any of the one or more R2 STAs may be selected from the eight RUallocation entries for indicating the RU. For example, the RU allocationentry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA is selected accordingto the number of STAs within the R2 STA. In this case, the RU allocationentry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA contributes a numberof user fields to the user specific fields in the same content channelas the RU allocation subfields including the RU allocation entry in thepreamble portion and the number of user fields is equal to the number ofSTAs within the R2 STA.

In some embodiments, both the RUs defined for the R1 STAs and the RUsdefined for the R2 STAS may be multi-RUs (MRUs), and the structure ofthe MRUs defined for the R2 STAs may be the same as that of the MRUsdefined for the R1 STAs.

In this solution, the R1 STAs need to parse the entry index of the RUallocation entry to figure out the number of user fields in the userspecific field to derive the correct structure for the user fields forthe R1 STAs. The R2 STAs can parse the RUs defined for the R2 STAs by asimilar way as the R1 STAs.

Solution 2

In some embodiments, ten of the RU allocation entries that are not usedfor indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs in the 802.11be RUallocation table may be used for indicating the RUs defined for the R2STAs.

In some embodiments, the ten RU allocation entries for indicating theRUs defined for the R2 STAs may include R2RU_0User_Start,R2RU__1User_Start, R2RU_3User_Start, R2RU_4User_Start, R2RU_5User_Start,R2RU_6User_Start, R2RU_7User_Start, R8RU_1User_Start, R2RU_9User_Start,and R2RU_0User_end, wherein:

the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RU allocation subfieldcomprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation of the previous RUrather than a new RU;

the R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined forthe R2 STAs;

the R2RU_XUser_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined for aR2 STA comprising X STAs, wherein X is an integer larger than 1 and lessthan or equal to 8;

the R2RU_0User_end is used to indicate the end of a RU corresponding toR2RU_0User_Start, R2RU_1User_Start, or R2RU_XUser_Start, which isclosest to the R2RU_0User_end.

In some embodiment, the RU allocation entry for indicating the RUassigned to the R2 STA is selected according to the number of STAswithin the R2 STA. In this case, the RU allocation entry for indicatingthe RU assigned to the R2 STA contributes a number of user fields to theuser specific fields in the same content channel as the RU allocationsubfields including the RU allocation entry in the preamble portion andthe number of user fields is equal to the number of STAs within the R2STA.

In some embodiments, both the RUs defined for the R1 STAs and the RUsdefined for the R2 STAS may be multi-RUs (MRUs), and the structure ofthe MRUs defined for the R2 STAs may be the same as that of the MRUsdefined for the R1 STAs.

FIG. 3 is a table for explanation of solution 1 to indicate MRUs definedfor R2 STAs. The table shown in FIG. 3 is an example of 160 MHz PPDUincluding one R2 STA with 484×2 tone MRU and the other STAs are R1 STAs.

As shown in FIG. 3, the R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the startof a MRU assigned to one R2 STA; the R2RU_0User_Start is used toindicate that the RU allocation subfield including the R2RU_0User_Startis a continuation of the previous MRU instead of a new MRU because itindicates a “0” user; the R2RU_0User_end is used to indicate the end ofa MRU corresponding to the closest R2RU_0User_Start or R2RU_1User_Start.

FIG. 4 is another table for explanation of solution 1 to indicate RUsdefined for R2 STAs. The table shown FIG. 4 is another example ofsolution 1 for the case that Multi-user Multiple-Input Multiple-Output(MU MIMO) is used. The only difference between the example shown in FIG.4 and the example shown in FIG. 3 is that there is R2RU_2User_Start forindicating the MRU for STA1 and STA2 in the R2 STA including STA1 to STA5 and R2RU_3User_Start for indicating the MRU for the STA 3-5 in the R2STA.

With the method 200 including solution 2, the R1 STAs may understand thenumber of user fields in the user specific fields and the structure ofthe user specific fields, such that the R1 STAs will be able to decodethe user fields for R1 correctly. The R2 STAs need to parse the RUallocation subfields to find out the start and end of each RU definedfor the R2 STAs, and this is extra complexity the R2 STAs have to pay.

In some embodiments, the PPDU is an EHT PPDU. FIG. 5 is a structurediagram showing EHT PPDU Format. FIG. 6 is a table showing a descriptionof EHT PPDU fields. The format of the EHT PPDU is used for transmissionto one or more users if the PPDU is not a response of a trigger frame.In the EHT PPDU, the EHT-SIG field is present. The EHT preamble consistsof pre-EHT modulated fields and EHT modulated fields. The pre-EHTmodulated fields for the EHT PPDU format are the following: L-STF,L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, U-SIG and EHT-SIG fields. The EHT modulated fieldsin the preamble for all the EHT PPDU format are the EHT-STF and EHT-LTFfields.

In some embodiments, the RU allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R1 STAs and the RU allocation entries corresponding to the oneor more R2 STAs are contained in EHT-SIG of the preamble portion of theEHT PPDU, and the abovementioned content channel is EHT-SIG contentchannel. The method 200 may be applied in 802.11be Wireless Local AreaNetworks (WLANs).

FIG. 7 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station700, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thedisclosure. In one embodiment, FIG. 7 illustrates a functional blockdiagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as theAP 104 (FIG. 1) or the user device 102 (FIG. 1) in accordance with someembodiments. The communication station 700 may also be suitable for useas a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, asmartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer,a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR)subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or otherpersonal communication system (PCS) device.

The communication station 700 may include communications circuitry 702and a transceiver 710 for transmitting and receiving signals to and fromother communication stations using one or more antennas 701. Thecommunications circuitry 702 may include circuitry that can operate thephysical layer (PHY) communications and/or medium access control (MAC)communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or anyother communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. Thecommunication station 700 may also include processing circuitry 706 andmemory 708 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the communications circuitry 702 and the processingcircuitry 706 may be configured to perform operations detailed in theabove figures, diagrams, and flows.

In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 702may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames orpackets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communicationscircuitry 702 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. Thecommunications circuitry 702 may also include circuitry formodulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering,amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 706 ofthe communication station 700 may include one or more processors. Inother embodiments, two or more antennas 701 may be coupled to thecommunications circuitry 702 arranged for transmitting and receivingsignals. The memory 708 may store information for configuring theprocessing circuitry 706 to perform operations for configuring andtransmitting message frames and performing the various operationsdescribed herein. The memory 708 may include any type of memory,including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a formreadable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 708may include a computer-readable storage device, read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storagemedia, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 700 may be part of aportable wireless communication device, such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wirelesscommunication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., aheart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computerdevice, or another device that may receive and/or transmit informationwirelessly.

In some embodiments, the communication station 700 may include one ormore antennas 701. The antennas 701 may include one or more directionalor omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas,monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas,or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. Insome embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna withmultiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture maybe considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated forspatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that mayresult between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmittingstation.

In some embodiments, the communication station 700 may include one ormore of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multipleantennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, andother mobile device elements. The display may be an liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) screen including a touch screen.

Although the communication station 700 is illustrated as having severalseparate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements maybe combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements of the communication station 700 may refer to one ormore processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination ofhardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also beimplemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storagedevice, which may be read and executed by at least one processor toperform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storagedevice may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storinginformation in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, opticalstorage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices andmedia. In some embodiments, the communication station 700 may includeone or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored ona computer-readable storage device.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine ZZ00 orsystem upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g.,methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments,the machine 800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected(e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, themachine 800 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a clientmachine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example,the machine 800 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (orother distributed) network environments. The machine 800 may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device,a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloudcomputing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer clusterconfigurations.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operationswhen operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardwaremay be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g.,hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurableexecution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computerreadable medium containing instructions where the instructions configurethe execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation.The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units ora loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units arecommunicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the deviceis operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member ofmore than one module. For example, under operation, the execution unitsmay be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a firstmodule at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set ofinstructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 800 may include a hardware processor802 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit(GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a mainmemory 804 and a static memory 806, some or all of which may communicatewith each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 808. The machine 800 mayfurther include a power management device 832, a graphics display device810, an alphanumeric input device 812 (e.g., a keyboard), and a userinterface (UI) navigation device 814 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, thegraphics display device 810, alphanumeric input device 812, and UInavigation device 814 may be a touch screen display. The machine 800 mayadditionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 816, a signalgeneration device 818 (e.g., a speaker), a multi-link parameters andcapability indication device 819, a network interface device/transceiver820 coupled to antenna(s) 830, and one or more sensors 828, such as aglobal positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, orother sensor. The machine 800 may include an output controller 834, suchas a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wiredor wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.)connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices(e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.)). The operations in accordancewith one or more example embodiments of the disclosure may be carriedout by a baseband processor. The baseband processor may be configured togenerate corresponding baseband signals. The baseband processor mayfurther include physical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer(MAC) circuitry, and may further interface with the hardware processor802 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and forcontrolling operations of the main memory 804, the storage device 816,and/or the multi-link parameters and capability indication device 819.The baseband processor may be provided on a single radio card, a singlechip, or an integrated circuit (IC).

The storage device 816 may include a machine readable medium 822 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 824(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of thetechniques or functions described herein. The instructions 824 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 804,within the static memory 806, or within the hardware processor 802during execution thereof by the machine 800. In an example, one or anycombination of the hardware processor 802, the main memory 804, thestatic memory 806, or the storage device 816 may constitutemachine-readable media.

The multi-link parameters and capability indication device 819 may carryout or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., process XY00)described and shown above.

It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the multi-linkparameters and capability indication device 819 may be configured toperform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure mayalso be performed by the multi-link parameters and capability indicationdevice 819.

While the machine-readable medium 822 is illustrated as a single medium,the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) configured to store the one or moreinstructions 824.

Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in softwareand/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form ofinstructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by oneor more processors to enable performance of the operations describedherein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but notlimited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executablecode, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readablemedium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storinginformation in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but notlimited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

The term “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine 800 and that cause the machine 800 to perform any one ormore of the techniques of the disclosure, or that is capable of storing,encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with suchinstructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examples may includesolid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In an example, amassed machine-readable medium includes a machine-readable medium with aplurality of particles having resting mass. Specific examples of massedmachine-readable media may include non-volatile memory, such assemiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-onlymemory (EPROM), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internalhard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM andDVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 824 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 826 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device/transceiver 820 utilizing any one of a number oftransfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP),transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP),hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communicationsnetworks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephonenetworks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks,wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards,and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, thenetwork interface device/transceiver 820 may include one or morephysical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or moreantennas to connect to the communications network 826. In an example,the network interface device/transceiver 820 may include a plurality ofantennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-inputmultiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ormultiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term “transmissionmedium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capableof storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by themachine 800 and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such software.

The operations and processes described and shown above may be carriedout or performed in any suitable order as desired in variousimplementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least aportion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore,in certain implementations, less than or more than the operationsdescribed may be performed.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 900A, 900B inaccordance with some embodiments that may be implemented in any one ofAPs 104 and/or the user devices 102 of FIG. 1. Radio architecture 900A,900B may include radio front-end module (FEM) circuitry 904 a-b, radioIC circuitry 906 a-b and baseband processing circuitry 908 a-b. Radioarchitecture 900A, 900B as shown includes both Wireless Local AreaNetwork (WLAN) functionality and Bluetooth (BT) functionality althoughembodiments are not so limited. In this disclosure, “WLAN” and “Wi-Fi”are used interchangeably.

FEM circuitry 904 a-b may include a WLAN or Wi-Fi FEM circuitry 904 aand a Bluetooth (BT) FEM circuitry 904 b. The WLAN FEM circuitry 904 amay include a receive signal path comprising circuitry configured tooperate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 901, toamplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions ofthe received signals to the WLAN radio IC circuitry 906 a for furtherprocessing. The BT FEM circuitry 904 b may include a receive signal pathwhich may include circuitry configured to operate on BT RF signalsreceived from one or more antennas 901, to amplify the received signalsand to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the BTradio IC circuitry 906 b for further processing. FEM circuitry 904 a mayalso include a transmit signal path which may include circuitryconfigured to amplify WLAN signals provided by the radio IC circuitry906 a for wireless transmission by one or more of the antennas 901. Inaddition, FEM circuitry 904 b may also include a transmit signal pathwhich may include circuitry configured to amplify BT signals provided bythe radio IC circuitry 906 b for wireless transmission by the one ormore antennas. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, although FEM 904 a and FEM904 b are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are notso limited, and include within their scope the use of an FEM (not shown)that includes a transmit path and/or a receive path for both WLAN and BTsignals, or the use of one or more FEM circuitries where at least someof the FEM circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths forboth WLAN and BT signals.

Radio IC circuitry 906 a-b as shown may include WLAN radio IC circuitry906 a and BT radio IC circuitry 906 b. The WLAN radio IC circuitry 906 amay include a receive signal path which may include circuitry todown-convert WLAN RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 904 a andprovide baseband signals to WLAN baseband processing circuitry 908 a. BTradio IC circuitry 906 b may in turn include a receive signal path whichmay include circuitry to down-convert BT RF signals received from theFEM circuitry 904 b and provide baseband signals to BT basebandprocessing circuitry 908 b. WLAN radio IC circuitry 906 a may alsoinclude a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convertWLAN baseband signals provided by the WLAN baseband processing circuitry908 a and provide WLAN RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 904 a forsubsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 901. BTradio IC circuitry 906 b may also include a transmit signal path whichmay include circuitry to up-convert BT baseband signals provided by theBT baseband processing circuitry 908 b and provide BT RF output signalsto the FEM circuitry 904 b for subsequent wireless transmission by theone or more antennas 901. In the embodiment of FIG. 9, although radio ICcircuitries 906 a and 906 b are shown as being distinct from oneanother, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scopethe use of a radio IC circuitry (not shown) that includes a transmitsignal path and/or a receive signal path for both WLAN and BT signals,or the use of one or more radio IC circuitries where at least some ofthe radio IC circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths forboth WLAN and BT signals.

Baseband processing circuity 908 a-b may include a WLAN basebandprocessing circuitry 908 a and a BT baseband processing circuitry 908 b.The WLAN baseband processing circuitry 908 a may include a memory, suchas, for example, a set of RAM arrays in a Fast Fourier Transform orInverse Fast Fourier Transform block (not shown) of the WLAN basebandprocessing circuitry 908 a. Each of the WLAN baseband circuitry 908 aand the BT baseband circuitry 908 b may further include one or moreprocessors and control logic to process the signals received from thecorresponding WLAN or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry906 a-b, and to also generate corresponding WLAN or BT baseband signalsfor the transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b. Each ofthe baseband processing circuitries 908 a and 908 b may further includephysical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry,and may further interface with a device for generation and processing ofthe baseband signals and for controlling operations of the radio ICcircuitry 906 a-b.

Referring still to FIG. 9, according to the shown embodiment, WLAN-BTcoexistence circuitry 913 may include logic providing an interfacebetween the WLAN baseband circuitry 908 a and the BT baseband circuitry908 b to enable use cases requiring WLAN and BT coexistence. Inaddition, a switch 903 may be provided between the WLAN FEM circuitry904 a and the BT FEM circuitry 904 b to allow switching between the WLANand BT radios according to application needs. In addition, although theantennas 901 are depicted as being respectively connected to the WLANFEM circuitry 904 a and the BT FEM circuitry 904 b, embodiments includewithin their scope the sharing of one or more antennas as between theWLAN and BT FEMs, or the provision of more than one antenna connected toeach of FEM 904 a or 904 b.

In some embodiments, the front-end module circuitry 904 a-b, the radioIC circuitry 906 a-b, and baseband processing circuitry 908 a-b may beprovided on a single radio card, such as wireless radio card 9. In someother embodiments, the one or more antennas 901, the FEM circuitry 904a-b and the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b may be provided on a single radiocard. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b and thebaseband processing circuitry 908 a-b may be provided on a single chipor integrated circuit (IC), such as IC 912.

In some embodiments, the wireless radio card 902 may include a WLANradio card and may be configured for Wi-Fi communications, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some ofthese embodiments, the radio architecture 900A, 900B may be configuredto receive and transmit orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM)or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communicationsignals over a multicarrier communication channel. The OFDM or OFDMAsignals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some of these multicarrier embodiments, radio architecture 900A, 900Bmay be part of a Wi-Fi communication station (STA) such as a wirelessaccess point (AP), a base station or a mobile device including a Wi-Fidevice. In some of these embodiments, radio architecture 900A, 900B maybe configured to transmit and receive signals in accordance withspecific communication standards and/or protocols, such as any of theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standardsincluding, 802.11n-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11-2016,802.11n-2009, 802.11ac, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay and/or 802.11axstandards and/or proposed specifications for WLANs, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect. Radio architecture 900A,900B may also be suitable to transmit and/or receive communications inaccordance with other techniques and standards.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 900A, 900B may be configuredfor high-efficiency Wi-Fi (HEW) communications in accordance with theIEEE 802.11ax standard. In these embodiments, the radio architecture900A, 900B may be configured to communicate in accordance with an OFDMAtechnique, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in thisrespect.

In some other embodiments, the radio architecture 900A, 900B may beconfigured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or moreother modulation techniques such as spread spectrum modulation (e.g.,direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and/or frequencyhopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA)), time-divisionmultiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing(FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limitedin this respect.

In some embodiments, as further shown in FIG. 9, the BT basebandcircuitry 908 b may be compliant with a Bluetooth (BT) connectivitystandard such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth 8.0 or Bluetooth 6.0, or any otheriteration of the Bluetooth Standard.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 900A, 900B may include otherradio cards, such as a cellular radio card configured for cellular(e.g., 5GPP such as LTE, LTE-Advanced or 7G communications).

In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 900A, 900B maybe configured for communication over various channel bandwidthsincluding bandwidths having center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4GHz, 5 GHz, and bandwidths of about 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, 5.5 MHz, 6 MHz,8 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (with contiguous bandwidths) or80+80 MHz (160 MHz) (with non-contiguous bandwidths). In someembodiments, a 920 MHz channel bandwidth may be used. The scope of theembodiments is not limited with respect to the above center frequencieshowever.

FIG. 10 illustrates WLAN FEM circuitry 904 a in accordance with someembodiments. Although the example of FIG. 10 is described in conjunctionwith the WLAN FEM circuitry 904 a, the example of FIG. 10 may bedescribed in conjunction with the example BT FEM circuitry 904 b (FIG.9), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 904 a may include a TX/RX switch1002 to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 904 a may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 904 a may include alow-noise amplifier (LNA) 1006 to amplify received RF signals 1003 andprovide the amplified received RF signals 1007 as an output (e.g., tothe radio IC circuitry 906 a-b (FIG. 9)). The transmit signal path ofthe circuitry 904 a may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify inputRF signals 1009 (e.g., provided by the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b), andone or more filters 1012, such as band-pass filters (BPFs), low-passfilters (LPFs) or other types of filters, to generate RF signals 1015for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas 901(FIG. 9)) via an example duplexer 1014.

In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communication, the FEM circuitry904 a may be configured to operate in either the 2.4 GHz frequencyspectrum or the 5 GHz frequency spectrum. In these embodiments, thereceive signal path of the FEM circuitry 904 a may include a receivesignal path duplexer 1004 to separate the signals from each spectrum aswell as provide a separate LNA 1006 for each spectrum as shown. In theseembodiments, the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 904 a mayalso include a power amplifier 1010 and a filter 1012, such as a BPF, anLPF or another type of filter for each frequency spectrum and a transmitsignal path duplexer 1004 to provide the signals of one of the differentspectrums onto a single transmit path for subsequent transmission by theone or more of the antennas 901 (FIG. 9). In some embodiments, BTcommunications may utilize the 2.4 GHz signal paths and may utilize thesame FEM circuitry 904 a as the one used for WLAN communications.

FIG. 11 illustrates radio IC circuitry 906 a in accordance with someembodiments. The radio IC circuitry 906 a is one example of circuitrythat may be suitable for use as the WLAN or BT radio IC circuitry 906a/906 b (FIG. 9), although other circuitry configurations may also besuitable. Alternatively, the example of FIG. 11 may be described inconjunction with the example BT radio IC circuitry 906 b.

In some embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 906 a may include a receivesignal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of theradio IC circuitry 906 a may include at least mixer circuitry 1102, suchas, for example, down-conversion mixer circuitry, amplifier circuitry1106 and filter circuitry 1108. The transmit signal path of the radio ICcircuitry 906 a may include at least filter circuitry 1112 and mixercircuitry 1114, such as, for example, up-conversion mixer circuitry.Radio IC circuitry 906 a may also include synthesizer circuitry 1104 forsynthesizing a frequency 1105 for use by the mixer circuitry 1102 andthe mixer circuitry 1114. The mixer circuitry 1102 and/or 1114 may each,according to some embodiments, be configured to provide directconversion functionality. The latter type of circuitry presents a muchsimpler architecture as compared with standard super-heterodyne mixercircuitries, and any flicker noise brought about by the same may bealleviated for example through the use of OFDM modulation. FIG. 11illustrates only a simplified version of a radio IC circuitry, and mayinclude, although not shown, embodiments where each of the depictedcircuitries may include more than one component. For instance, mixercircuitry 1114 may each include one or more mixers, and filtercircuitries 1108 and/or 1112 may each include one or more filters, suchas one or more BPFs and/or LPFs according to application needs. Forexample, when mixer circuitries are of the direct-conversion type, theymay each include two or more mixers.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1102 may be configured todown-convert RF signals 1007 received from the FEM circuitry 904 a-b(FIG. 9) based on the synthesized frequency 1105 provided by synthesizercircuitry 1104. The amplifier circuitry 1106 may be configured toamplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1108 mayinclude an LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from thedown-converted signals to generate output baseband signals 1107. Outputbaseband signals 1107 may be provided to the baseband processingcircuitry 908 a-b (FIG. 9) for further processing. In some embodiments,the output baseband signals 1107 may be zero-frequency baseband signals,although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry1102 may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodimentsis not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1114 may be configured toup-convert input baseband signals 1111 based on the synthesizedfrequency 1105 provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1104 to generate RFoutput signals 1009 for the FEM circuitry 904 a-b. The baseband signals1111 may be provided by the baseband processing circuitry 908 a-b andmay be filtered by filter circuitry 1112. The filter circuitry 1112 mayinclude an LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1102 and the mixer circuitry1114 may each include two or more mixers and may be arranged forquadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion respectively with thehelp of synthesizer 1104. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1102and the mixer circuitry 1114 may each include two or more mixers eachconfigured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 1102 and the mixer circuitry 1114 maybe arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion,respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1102 and themixer circuitry 1114 may be configured for super-heterodyne operation,although this is not a requirement.

Mixer circuitry 1102 may comprise, according to one embodiment:quadrature passive mixers (e.g., for the in-phase (I) and quadraturephase (Q) paths). In such an embodiment, RF input signal 1007 from FIG.11 may be down-converted to provide I and Q baseband output signals tobe transmitted to the baseband processor.

Quadrature passive mixers may be driven by zero and ninety-degreetime-varying LO switching signals provided by a quadrature circuitrywhich may be configured to receive a LO frequency (fLO) from a localoscillator or a synthesizer, such as LO frequency 1105 of synthesizer1104 (FIG. 11). In some embodiments, the LO frequency may be the carrierfrequency, while in other embodiments, the LO frequency may be afraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency,one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the zero andninety-degree time-varying switching signals may be generated by thesynthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited inthis respect.

In some embodiments, the LO signals may differ in duty cycle (thepercentage of one period in which the LO signal is high) and/or offset(the difference between start points of the period). In someembodiments, the LO signals may have an 85% duty cycle and an 80%offset. In some embodiments, each branch of the mixer circuitry (e.g.,the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) path) may operate at an 80%duty cycle, which may result in a significant reduction is powerconsumption.

The RF input signal 1007 (FIG. 10) may comprise a balanced signal,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.The I and Q baseband output signals may be provided to low-noiseamplifier, such as amplifier circuitry 1106 (FIG. 11) or to filtercircuitry 1108 (FIG. 11).

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 1107 and the inputbaseband signals 1111 may be analog baseband signals, although the scopeof the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals 1107 and the input basebandsignals 1111 may be digital baseband signals. In these alternateembodiments, the radio IC circuitry may include analog-to-digitalconverter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, or for otherspectrums not mentioned here, although the scope of the embodiments isnot limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1104 may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 1104 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier,or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequencydivider. According to some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1104may include digital synthesizer circuitry. An advantage of using adigital synthesizer circuitry is that, although it may still includesome analog components, its footprint may be scaled down much more thanthe footprint of an analog synthesizer circuitry. In some embodiments,frequency input into synthesizer circuity 1104 may be provided by avoltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement.A divider control input may further be provided by either the basebandprocessing circuitry 908 a-b (FIG. 9) depending on the desired outputfrequency 1105. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N)may be determined from a look-up table (e.g., within a Wi-Fi card) basedon a channel number and a channel center frequency as determined orindicated by the example application processor 910. The applicationprocessor 910 may include, or otherwise be connected to, one of theexample security signal converter 101 or the example received signalconverter 103 (e.g., depending on which device the example radioarchitecture is implemented in).

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1104 may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency 1105, while inother embodiments, the output frequency 1105 may be a fraction of thecarrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third thecarrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 1105 maybe a LO frequency (fLO).

FIG. 12 illustrates a functional block diagram of baseband processingcircuitry 908 a in accordance with some embodiments. The basebandprocessing circuitry 908 a is one example of circuitry that may besuitable for use as the baseband processing circuitry 908 a (FIG. 9),although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.Alternatively, the example of FIG. 11 may be used to implement theexample BT baseband processing circuitry 908 b of FIG. 9.

The baseband processing circuitry 908 a may include a receive basebandprocessor (RX BBP) 1202 for processing receive baseband signals 1109provided by the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b (FIG. 9) and a transmitbaseband processor (TX BBP) 1204 for generating transmit basebandsignals 1111 for the radio IC circuitry 906 a-b. The baseband processingcircuitry 908 a may also include control logic 1206 for coordinating theoperations of the baseband processing circuitry 908 a.

In some embodiments (e.g., when analog baseband signals are exchangedbetween the baseband processing circuitry 908 a-b and the radio ICcircuitry 906 a-b), the baseband processing circuitry 908 a may includeADC 1210 to convert analog baseband signals 1209 received from the radioIC circuitry 906 a-b to digital baseband signals for processing by theRX BBP 1202. In these embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 908a may also include DAC 1212 to convert digital baseband signals from theTX BBP 1204 to analog baseband signals 1211.

In some embodiments that communicate OFDM signals or OFDMA signals, suchas through baseband processor 908 a, the transmit baseband processor1204 may be configured to generate OFDM or OFDMA signals as appropriatefor transmission by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT).The receive baseband processor 1202 may be configured to processreceived OFDM signals or OFDMA signals by performing an FFT. In someembodiments, the receive baseband processor 1202 may be configured todetect the presence of an OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing anautocorrelation, to detect a preamble, such as a short preamble, and byperforming a cross-correlation, to detect a long preamble. The preamblesmay be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

Referring back to FIG. 9, in some embodiments, the antennas 901 (FIG. 9)may each comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas,including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patchantennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennassuitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectivelyseparated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the differentchannel characteristics that may result. Antennas 901 may each include aset of phased-array antennas, although embodiments are not so limited.

Although the radio architecture 900A, 900B is illustrated as havingseveral separate functional elements, one or more of the functionalelements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on oneor more processing elements.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. The terms “computing device,” “userdevice,” “communication station,” “station,” “handheld device,” “mobiledevice,” “wireless device” and “user equipment” (UE) as used hereinrefers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone,a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptopcomputer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, anaccess point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, orother personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may beeither mobile or stationary.

As used within this document, the term “communicate” is intended toinclude transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving.This may be particularly useful in claims when describing theorganization of data that is being transmitted by one device andreceived by another, but only the functionality of one of those devicesis required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchangeof data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive duringthe exchange) may be described as “communicating,” when only thefunctionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term“communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communicationsignal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/orreceiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wirelesscommunication unit, which is capable of communicating a wirelesscommunication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit thewireless communication signal to at least one other wirelesscommunication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receivethe wireless communication signal from at least one other wirelesscommunication unit.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinaladjectives “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., to describe a commonobject, merely indicates that different instances of like objects arebeing referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects sodescribed must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, inranking, or in any other manner.

The term “access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. Anaccess point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station,an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known inthe art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, userequipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similarterminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generallypertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wirelessnetworks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices andsystems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, amobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tabletcomputer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, apersonal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, anon-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehiculardevice, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumerdevice, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communicationstation, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP),a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device,an audio device, an audio-video (A/V) device, a wired or wirelessnetwork, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN),a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal areanetwork (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-wayradio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communicationsystems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, apersonal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device whichincorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portableglobal positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates aGPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFIDelement or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver ordevice, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, amultiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a devicehaving one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digitalvideo broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devicesor systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, awireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types ofwireless communication signals and/or systems following one or morewireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF),infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM(OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access(TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS),extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA(WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA,multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth®,global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband(UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G,3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, long termevolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution(EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various otherdevices, systems, and/or networks.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes a method, comprising: generating a Physical Layer(PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising both information for one ormore first-generation stations (R1 STAs) and information for one or moresecond-generation stations (R2 STAs); and transmitting the PPDU to theone or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2 STAs, wherein a preambleportion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit (RU) allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RU allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.

Example 2 includes the method of Example 1, wherein the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs are selected from RUallocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R1 STAs, and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are selectedfrom RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R2 STAs.

Example 3 includes the method of Example 2, wherein the RU allocationentries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs are a part of RUallocation entries in a 802.11be RU allocation table, and the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs are adifferent part of the RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table.

Example 4 includes the method of Example 3, wherein eight RU allocationentries are allocated for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to each RUdefined for the R2 STAs, and the RU allocation entries for indicatingthe RUs defined for R2 STAs are used to indicate at least 27 RUs definedfor the R2 STAs.

Example 5 includes the method of Example 3, wherein an index value of aRU allocation entry for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to a RUdefined for the R2 STAs is used to indicate the number of user fields,which are contributed to user specific fields in the same contentchannel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry inthe preamble portion.

Example 6 includes the method of Example 5, wherein the number of userfields contributed to the user specific fields is derived based on thefollowing expression: N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1, wherein N_user denotesthe number of user fields contributed to the user specific fields andn_index denotes the index value of the RU allocation entry.

Example 7 includes the method of Example 4, wherein a RU allocationentry for indicating a RU assigned to any of the one or more R2 STAs isselected from eight RU allocation entries for indicating the RU.

Example 8 includes the method of Example 7, wherein the RU allocationentry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA is selected accordingto the number of STAs within the R2 STA.

Example 9 includes the method of Example 7, wherein the RU allocationentry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA contributes a numberof user fields to user specific fields in the same content channel as RUallocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry in the preambleportion and the number of user fields is equal to the number of STAswithin the R2 STA.

Example 10 includes the method of Example 2, wherein both the RUsdefined for the R1 STAs and the RUs defined for the R2 STAS aremulti-RUs (MRUs).

Example 11 includes the method of Example 10, wherein the structure ofthe MRUs defined for the R2 STAs is the same as that of the MRUs definedfor the R1 STAs.

Example 12 includes the method of Example 3, wherein the RU allocationentries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs compriseR2RU__1User_Start, R2RU_0User_Start, and R2RU_0User_end, wherein theR2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined for theR2 STAs, the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RU allocationsubfield comprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation of theprevious RU rather than a new RU, and the R2RU_0User_end is used toindicate the end of a RU corresponding to R2R _1User_Start orR2RU_0User_Start, which is closest to the R2RU_0User_end.

Example 13 includes the method of Example 12, wherein the RU allocationentries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs further compriseR2RU_XUser_Start, X is an integer larger than 1 and less than or equalto 8, wherein the R2RU_XUser_Start is used to indicate the start of a RUdefined for a R2 STA comprising X STAs.

Example 14 includes the method of Example 1, wherein the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are comprised in RUallocation subfields of the preamble portion.

Example 15 includes the method of Example 1, wherein the PPDU is anextremely high throughput (EHT) PPDU.

Example 16 includes the method of Example 15, wherein the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are contained inEHT-SIG of the preamble portion.

Example 17 includes the method of Example 1, wherein the method isapplied in 802.11be Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).

Example 18 includes an apparatus, comprising processor circuitryconfigured to: generate a Physical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU)comprising both information for one or more first-generation stations(R1 STAs) and information for one or more second-generation stations (R2STAs); and transmit the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs and the one ormore R2 STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises ResourceUnit (RU) allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAsand RU allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.

Example 19 includes the apparatus of Example 18, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs are selectedfrom RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R1 STAs, andthe RU allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs areselected from RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R2STAs.

Example 20 includes the apparatus of Example 19, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs are apart of RU allocation entries in a 802.11be RU allocation table, and theRU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs area different part of the RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table.

Example 21 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein eight RUallocation entries are allocated for indicating 1 to 8 users allocatedto each RU defined for the R2 STAs, and the RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for R2 STAs are used to indicate at least 27RUs defined for the R2 STAs.

Example 22 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein an index valueof a RU allocation entry for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to a RUdefined for the R2 STAs is used to indicate the number of user fields,which are contributed to user specific fields in the same contentchannel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry inthe preamble portion.

Example 23 includes the apparatus of Example 22, wherein the number ofuser fields contributed to the user specific fields is derived based onthe following expression: N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1, wherein N_userdenotes the number of user fields contributed to the user specificfields and n_index denotes the index value of the RU allocation entry.

Example 24 includes the apparatus of Example 21, wherein a RU allocationentry for indicating a RU assigned to any of the one or more R2 STAs isselected from eight RU allocation entries for indicating the RU.

Example 25 includes the apparatus of Example 24, wherein the RUallocation entry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA isselected according to the number of STAs within the R2 STA.

Example 26 includes the apparatus of Example 24, wherein the RUallocation entry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STAcontributes a number of user fields to user specific fields in the samecontent channel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocationentry in the preamble portion and the number of user fields is equal tothe number of STAs within the R2 STA.

Example 27 includes the apparatus of Example 19, wherein both the RUsdefined for the R1 STAs and the RUs defined for the R2 STAS aremulti-RUs (MRUs).

Example 28 includes the apparatus of Example 27, wherein the structureof the MRUs defined for the R2 STAs is the same as that of the MRUsdefined for the R1 STAs.

Example 29 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAscomprise R2RU_1User_Start, R2RU_0User_Start, and R2RU_0User_end, whereinthe R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined forthe R2 STAs, the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RU allocationsubfield comprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation of theprevious RU rather than a new RU, and the R2RU_0User_end is used toindicate the end of a RU corresponding to R2RU_1User_Start orR2RU_0User_Start, which is closest to the R2RU_0User_end.

Example 30 includes the apparatus of Example 29, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAsfurther comprise R2RU_XUser_Start, X is an integer larger than 1 andless than or equal to 8, wherein the R2RU_XUser_Start is used toindicate the start of a RU defined for a R2 STA comprising X STAs.

Example 31 includes the apparatus of Example 18, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs arecomprised in RU allocation subfields of the preamble portion.

Example 32 includes the apparatus of Example 18, wherein the PPDU is anextremely high throughput (EHT) PPDU.

Example 33 includes the apparatus of Example 32, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs arecontained in EHT-SIG of the preamble portion.

Example 34 includes the apparatus of Example 18, wherein the apparatusis applied in 802.11be Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).

Example 35 includes the apparatus of Example 18, further comprising:memory; and one or more antennas coupled to the processor circuitry.

Example 36 includes an apparatus, comprising: means for generating aPhysical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising bothinformation for one or more first-generation stations (R1 STAs) andinformation for one or more second-generation stations (R2 STAs); andtransmitting the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit(RU) allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.

Example 37 includes the apparatus of Example 36, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs are selectedfrom RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R1 STAs, andthe RU allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs areselected from RU allocation entries for indicating RUs defined for R2STAs.

Example 38 includes the apparatus of Example 37, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs are apart of RU allocation entries in a 802.11be RU allocation table, and theRU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs area different part of the RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table.

Example 39 includes the apparatus of Example 38, wherein eight RUallocation entries are allocated for indicating 1 to 8 users allocatedto each RU defined for the R2 STAs, and the RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for R2 STAs are used to indicate at least 27RUs defined for the R2 STAs.

Example 40 includes the apparatus of Example 38, wherein an index valueof a RU allocation entry for indicating 1 to 8 uses allocated to a RUdefined for the R2 STAs is used to indicate the number of user fields,which are contributed to user specific fields in the same contentchannel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry inthe preamble portion.

Example 41 includes the apparatus of Example 40, wherein the number ofuser fields contributed to the user specific fields is derived based onthe following expression: N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1, wherein N_userdenotes the number of user fields contributed to the user specificfields and n_index denotes the index value of the RU allocation entry.

Example 42 includes the apparatus of Example 39, wherein a RU allocationentry for indicating a RU assigned to any of the one or more R2 STAs isselected from eight RU allocation entries for indicating the RU.

Example 43 includes the apparatus of Example 42, wherein the RUallocation entry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA isselected according to the number of STAs within the R2 STA.

Example 44 includes the apparatus of Example 42, wherein the RUallocation entry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STAcontributes a number of user fields to user specific fields in the samecontent channel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocationentry in the preamble portion and the number of user fields is equal tothe number of STAs within the R2 STA.

Example 45 includes the apparatus of Example 37, wherein both the RUsdefined for the R1 STAs and the RUs defined for the R2 STAS aremulti-RUs (MRUs).

Example 46 includes the apparatus of Example 45, wherein the structureof the MRUs defined for the R2 STAs is the same as that of the MRUsdefined for the R1 STAs.

Example 47 includes the apparatus of Example 38, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAscomprise R2RU_1User_Start, R2RU_0User_Start, and R2RU_0User_end, whereinthe R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined forthe R2 STAs, the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RU allocationsubfield comprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation of theprevious RU rather than a new RU, and the R2RU_0User_end is used toindicate the end of a RU corresponding to R2RU_1User_Start orR2RU_0User_Start, which is closest to the R2RU_0User_end.

Example 48 includes the apparatus of Example 47, wherein the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAsfurther comprise R2RU_XUser_Start, X is an integer larger than 1 andless than or equal to 8, wherein the R2RU_XUser_Start is used toindicate the start of a RU defined for a R2 STA comprising X STAs.

Example 49 includes the apparatus of Example 36, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs arecomprised in RU allocation subfields of the preamble portion.

Example 50 includes the apparatus of Example 36, wherein the PPDU is anextremely high throughput (EHT) PPDU.

Example 51 includes the apparatus of Example 50, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs arecontained in EHT-SIG of the preamble portion.

Example 52 includes the apparatus of Example 36, wherein the apparatusis applied in 802.11be Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).

Example 53 includes a computer readable storage medium comprisinginstructions for causing one or more processors to execute the method ofany of claims 1-16.

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described hereinfor purposes of description, a wide variety of alternate and/orequivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the samepurposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and describedwithout departing from the scope of the disclosure. This application isintended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodimentsdiscussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that embodimentsdescribed herein be limited only by the appended claims and theequivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: generating a Physical Layer(PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising both information for one ormore first-generation stations (R1 STAs) and information for one or moresecond-generation stations (R2 STAs); and transmitting the PPDU to theone or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2 STAs, wherein a preambleportion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit (RU) allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RU allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the RU allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1STAs are selected from RU allocation entries for indicating RUs definedfor R1 STAs, and the RU allocation entries corresponding to the one ormore R2 STAs are selected from RU allocation entries for indicating RUsdefined for R2 STAs.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the RU allocationentries for indicating the RUs defined for the R1 STAs are a part of RUallocation entries in a 802.11be RU allocation table, and the RUallocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs are adifferent part of the RU allocation entries in the 802.11be RUallocation table.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein eight RU allocationentries are allocated for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to each RUdefined for the R2 STAs, and the RU allocation entries for indicatingthe RUs defined for R2 STAs are used to indicate at least 27 RUs definedfor the R2 STAs.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein an index value of aRU allocation entry for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to a RUdefined for the R2 STAs is used to indicate the number of user fields,which are contributed to user specific fields in the same contentchannel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry inthe preamble portion.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the number ofuser fields contributed to the user specific fields is derived based onthe following expression:N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1 wherein N_user denotes the number of userfields contributed to the user specific fields and n_index denotes theindex value of the RU allocation entry.
 7. The method of claim 4,wherein a RU allocation entry for indicating a RU assigned to any of theone or more R2 STAs is selected from eight RU allocation entries forindicating the RU.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the RU allocationentry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2 STA is selected accordingto the number of STAs within the R2 STA.
 9. The method of claim 7,wherein the RU allocation entry for indicating the RU assigned to the R2STA contributes a number of user fields to user specific fields in thesame content channel as RU allocation subfields comprising the RUallocation entry in the preamble portion and the number of user fieldsis equal to the number of STAs within the R2 STA.
 10. The method ofclaim 2, wherein both the RUs defined for the R1 STAs and the RUsdefined for the R2 STAS are multi-RUs (MRUs).
 11. The method of claim 3,wherein the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for theR2 STAs comprise R2RU_1User_Start, R2RU_0User_Start, and R2RU_0User_end,wherein the R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RUdefined for the R2 STAs, the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RUallocation subfield comprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation ofthe previous RU rather than a new RU, and the R2RU_0User_end is used toindicate the end of a RU corresponding to R2RU_1User_Start orR2RU_0User_Start, which is closest to the R2RU_0User_end.
 12. The methodof claim 11, wherein the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUsdefined for the R2 STAs further comprise R2RU_XUser_Start, X is aninteger larger than 1 and less than or equal to 8, wherein theR2RU_XUser_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined for a R2STA comprising X STAs.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs arecomprised in RU allocation subfields of the preamble portion.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the PPDU is an extremely high throughput(EHT) PPDU.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and the RU allocationentries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are contained inEHT-SIG of the preamble portion.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein themethod is applied in 802.11be Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). 17.An apparatus, comprising processor circuitry configured to: generate aPhysical Layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprising bothinformation for one or more first-generation stations (R1 STAs) andinformation for one or more second-generation stations (R2 STAs); andtransmit the PPDU to the one or more R1 STAs and the one or more R2STAs, wherein a preamble portion of the PPDU comprises Resource Unit(RU) allocation entries corresponding to the one or more R1 STAs and RUallocation entries corresponding to the one or more R2 STAs.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 17, wherein the RU allocation entries correspondingto the one or more R1 STAs are selected from RU allocation entries forindicating RUs defined for R1 STAs, and the RU allocation entriescorresponding to the one or more R2 STAs are selected from RU allocationentries for indicating RUs defined for R2 STAs.
 19. The apparatus ofclaim 18, wherein the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUsdefined for the R1 STAs are a part of RU allocation entries in a802.11be RU allocation table, and the RU allocation entries forindicating the RUs defined for the R2 STAs are a different part of theRU allocation entries in the 802.11be RU allocation table.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 19, wherein eight RU allocation entries are allocatedfor indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to each RU defined for the R2STAs, and the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined forR2 STAs are used to indicate at least 27 RUs defined for the R2 STAs.21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein an index value of a RU allocationentry for indicating 1 to 8 users allocated to a RU defined for the R2STAs is used to indicate the number of user fields, which arecontributed to user specific fields in the same content channel as RUallocation subfields comprising the RU allocation entry in the preambleportion.
 22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the number of userfields contributed to the user specific fields is derived based on thefollowing expression:N_user=mod(n_index, 8)+1 wherein N_user denotes the number of userfields contributed to the user specific fields and n_index denotes theindex value of the RU allocation entry.
 23. The apparatus of claim 19,wherein the RU allocation entries for indicating the RUs defined for theR2 STAs comprise R2RU_1User_Start, R2RU_0User_Start, and R2RU_0User_end,wherein the R2RU_1User_Start is used to indicate the start of a RUdefined for the R2 STAs, the R2RU_0User_Start is used to indicate a RUallocation subfield comprising the R2RU_0User_Start is a continuation ofthe previous RU rather than a new RU, and the R2RU_0User_end is used toindicate the end of a RU corresponding to R2RU_1User_Start orR2RU_0User_Start, which is closest to the R2RU_0User_end.
 24. Theapparatus of claim 23, wherein the RU allocation entries for indicatingthe RUs defined for the R2 STAs further comprise R2RU_XUser_Start, X isan integer larger than 1 and less than or equal to 8, wherein theR2RU_XUser_Start is used to indicate the start of a RU defined for a R2STA comprising X STAs.
 25. A computer readable storage medium,comprising instructions for causing one or more processors to executethe method of claim 1.